Saginaw Township school board to honor John Musulin with plaque, not pool name

View full sizeSwimmers can be seen diving into the Heritage High School pool in this file photo.File | MLive.com

SAGINAW TOWNSHIP, MI — The Saginaw Township Community Schools Board of Education has decided to honor longtime assistant swimming coach John Musulin with a plaque, rather than by naming the Heritage High School pool after him.

“The board voted to recognize Coach Musulin for his years of dedicated service and they’ll do so at a later date,” said Superintendent Douglas Trombley.

The board made the decision unanimously during its Monday, May 20, meeting.

School board member Chris Swartz, who also served on the committee, said the committee’s reasons were that there are no other facilities named after non-administrators, concerns about naming a facility after a still active coach, and, while much of the community survey feedback was positive, some respondents opposed the idea of naming the pool after Musulin or anyone.

“It (the community feedback) was mainly positive in regard to what a great effect he had on so many people,” Swartz said. “So many people sent stories of how he changed their life and pushed them to be the best possible people.”

However, “there was community feedback that gave quite a bit of concerns about naming any facility after anyone.”

The idea of naming the pool after Musulin was addressed during a November school board meeting.

“He has either coached or assisted coach swimming for many, many years,” Trombley said during that meeting. “And he still works with our students. He opens the pool early in the morning, stays late at night. He’s been a fixture in the swimming community here in Saginaw Township for quite a long time.”

After learning of the committee’s recommendation not to name the pool after Musulin, Jim King, who originally proposed the idea, requested that his proposal be withdrawn. He said Musulin preferred that the proposal no longer be up for consideration.

“This has never been a big priority with me, it’s been a big priority with other people,” Musulin said. “If that’s not what the committee wants and that’s not what the board wants I have to go along with them.”

He added, “I’m never one to try to be in the spotlight.”

Musulin said he received some nice letters from former swimmers that meant a lot to him.

“I’ve got a couple personal things that were sent to me by a couple swimmers and they were extremely touching...those letters and those emails probably mean as much to me as anything.”